Flickerfest began as a small local festival at the Balmain High School in 1991.
Over the last 16 years it has grown to become Australia's only competitive
International Short Film Festival with entries coming from filmmakers across the globe.

Flickerfest is considered in International circles as the leading Australian competitive short film festival and increasingly filmmakers view it as one of the main festivals on the world circuit. To maintain this high standard each year the festival director visits festivals around the world seeking new films most of which have not been seen in Australia.

In 2003 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science elected to recognise Flickererfest as a qualifying festival for the Best Short film and Best Animation categories of the Academy Awards®

The honour of Academy Award ® accreditation will guarantee Flickerfest's international profile for many years to come, whilst also ensuring greater opportunities for our Australian short film makers internationally.

Flickerfest's national tour has become a very important part of the festival and started in 1995. The tour takes the main competitive programmes and some Special sessions to many regional and metropolitan areas, which rarely have an opportunity to view this collection of the best of the world's short films. The difference between Flickerfest and other film festivals is that Flickerfest is acknowledged as a quality arts event. Each year we screen Academy Award nominated films plus many other internationally award-winning films.

Thankyou to all our sponsors, participating filmmakers and to you our audience for supporting Flickerfest 2007.

I am very pleased to welcome you to the 16th Flickerfest International Short Film Festival, driven by MINI, who we are thrilled to welcome back as our naming rights partners for 2007 and 2008.

We are delighted with their support of the festival and we thank them for assisting us in our vision to provide Australia with a competitive international short film festival amongst the best in the world.

This year Flickerfest has continued its growth both at home and around the world as is illustrated by the record 1200 entries received, assuring Flickerfest’s place amongst the leading competitive short film festivals of the world

Over the past ten years as festival director, I have had the great pleasure of watching both the festival, and the profile and popularity of short film itself grow as audiences around the country embrace the short film form for the important role that it plays in defining today's cinema in a totally exciting, fresh and
inspirational way.

In 2007 we will continue to showcase the best of short films from Australia and around the world, in a series of competitive programmes that will celebrate excellence in the art of short film on the international stage.

As Australia’s only Academy accredited short film festival, films in competition at Flickerfest are fiercely competing for a number of prestigious prizes including the Coopers Award For Best Film and the Yoram Gross Award For Best Animation, alongside the JVC award for best Australian Short Film.

In 2007 we will screen 16 different short film programmes during our ten-day festival season. Apart from our 11 programmes of International, Australian and documentary competitions we will also present a series of showcase programmes that are designed to inspire, entertain and challenge our local audiences to experience the world in a different way.

As the true independent of the film industry short film plays a crucial role in developing and encouraging a myriad of different storytelling voices that strongly encourage and promote cultural diversity and tolerance. Yet despite all of our differences inherent in these stories are also many reminders of the universality of being human no matter where in the world we come from.

We hope that you experience and are touched by our windows to another world this year.

In 2007 I am extremely proud to be collaborating with another international  festival that I have long admired, the highly respected Hiroshima  Animation festival from Japan.
 
Our showcase from this festival will bring to Australia for the first time the grand Prix winners of the last 25 years in a feast of animation excellence not to be missed. We are delighted that festival director and founder Sayoko Kinoshita will be joining us in Australia to present this programme and honoured that she will participate as a member of our Flickerfest jury.
 
Other short film programmes this year designed to celebrate the depth and breadth of the format include a ‘Celebrity shorts’ showcase with highlight’s from Gwyneth Paltrow , Deborah Lee Furness and Cate Blanchett, a ‘Wonderful World of Dogs’ special of shorts on mans best friend sniffed out from all around the world and and’ Endless Summer’ a  programme dedicated to balmy summer nights under the stars

Now in our sixteenth year, Flickerfest relies heavily on the support of our major sponsors without whom a festival of this nature would not be possible. Alongside MINI our naming rights partner I would like to extend my gratitude to our major government partners the Australian Film Commission, and major sponsors the FTO, SBS, JVC Pro, and Triple J. Without this support our vision to present an International festival amongst the best in the world would not be possible
 
My gratitude and appreciation also extends to all our other sponsors who are acknowledged in this programme for the essential support that they provide.

Flickerfest is blessed to have such a passionate and loyal team who’s dedication to their work and to the principles of independent cinema make this festival possible. My huge thanks goes to festival manager Clare Sawyer, who has worked with me as the co-curator of the Australian competition this year, festival coordinator Annie Ukleja and my longstanding projectionist team Bob Gamlen and Alan Butterfield and festival production coordinator Shane Rennie.

From January to March 2007 Flickerfest is delighted to present you with our 16th festival under the stars, at Bondi and at our 15 venues around the country, including Hobart this year for the first time.

We hope that you find our programmes this year inspiring and that they leave with a greater appreciation for the short film form of cinema and for its passionate and creative producers whose films exist out of a love and excitement for storytelling in its purest sense.

We welcome you to a view of far horizons.

Bronwyn Kidd
Festival director